Elizabeth Cardona has returned as director of Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s Springfield office more than a year after leaving to get a master’s degree at Syracuse University.

U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, said the inclusion of money for high speed rail projects in the stimulus funding that was proposed to jumpstart the economy is an example of an opportunity coming at a time of economic downturn that must not be neglected. Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno said improved rail travel in the Northeast can help revitalize the inner cores of older cities, which in turn will make these urban centers more attractive places for jobs and good housing.

CHICOPEE – The rock drill that gnawed its way 2,300 feet into the collapsed Chilean mine and made the rescue of 33 trapped miners possible wouldn’t have worked without a part built in Chicopee. “It is a tremendous sense of satisfaction for all of us. And no one knows it’s from Chicopee,” said David P. Pieciak, president of Chicopee Engineering Associates Inc., a maker of industrial filtration equipment, including the oil/air separator on the Schramm drill rigs used in the rescue.

SPRINGFIELD – Health care and the prospects of getting double-digit premium increases no matter what they do is the issue that keeps employers up at night, according to a recent study by Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

In spite of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, our farming community has continued to show the resilience, ingenuity, and roll-up-the-sleeves resolve for which Massachusetts farmers are famous.

In the mid-1800s, the large brick building off of Dwight Street was a lynchpin of the city's economic prosperity, the first mill built along the canals as part of the "planned city of Holyoke."

So when Springfield Technical Community College opens a new student center next week, it will not just be expanding services for the 250 veterans and service members enrolled on the Armory Square campus. It will be setting a new standard for student lounges everywhere. “The location is like a dream come true,” said Carol M. Mathison, a counselor involved in the five-year search for funding and a space for the project.

For Gierasch, high performance computing will address the need to do longer simulations of the folding networks of proteins within a cell, to answer why they align in particular ways. The long term goal of such work could lead to limits on human suffering by figuring out the role of proteins, which are linked to certain diseases and about half the human cancers, she said.

The new store, housed in the former GBI Marketing building which Kittredge Industries LLC purchased in March for $480,000, is not too far up the road from Yankee Candle in Deerfield which Michael Kittredge II founded and turned into a multi-million dollar business and tourist attraction. He sold the company in 1998 for what Wall Street analysts estimated to be a purchase price of $400 million.

CHICOPEE - The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission will receive a $175,000 federal Environmental Protection Agency “brownfields” grant to help revitalize a former industrial neighborhood here.

The office is a venture of Boston Asia Capital, which a press release said is a Massachusetts-based global investment banker, the state Supplier Diversity Office and the city, said Mayor Elaine A. Pluta and Kathleen G. Anderson, director of the Holyoke Office of Planning and Development.

Despite details to be worked out, Cisco’s program at least will help show how to improve quality of life here for once-leading industrial city that is struggling with poverty and blight but is poised for a rebound, Mayor Elaine A. Pluta said. “We look forward to working with Cisco and our community partners now and in the future to create a one-of-a-kind Holyoke,” Pluta said.

“We see value in Springfield,” said Heriberto Flores, chairman president and CEO of the New England Farm Workers’ Council. “We’re just making a commitment to the downtown. Also, the Fort is one of the top restaurants in the United States.” Rudi R. Scherff, managing partner of The Fort and Student Prince restaurant said nothing would change and the restaurant itself, which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, will remain in the Scherff family. Scherff said he welcomes the opportunity to work with his friend Flores.

James Naismith, a Springfield College alumnus who invented the game of basketball, taught in the building and participated in the dedication of its original section completed in 1894.

Westfield State College, soon to become Westfield State University, is planning an estimated $100 million in growth to facilities and services on the Western Avenue campus.

MicroTek faces the same challenges as any other firm including global competition, downward pressure on pricing, the need to create strategic alliances and growing the business. The company is a non-profit so it doesn’t have to deliver a high return on investment. But it does have to survive if the company is to continue its mission.

Sanderson MacLeod, which invented the mascara brush 50 years ago, recently donated hundreds of medical brushes for the annual volunteer-led clean-up effort.

After 75 years of bus service, Peter Pan Bus Lines is “spreading its wheels “to include environmentally-friendly taxi cabs - and the company has purposefully chosen Northampton as its hub

"One of the big issues in economic development for any city is 'What are we doing that is transformative?'" said John D. Judge, chief development officer for the city. "We've got to embrace innovation. This was a way of branding that effort."

While Massachusetts is recovering from the recession faster than most other states, Western Massachusetts seems to be left behind according to a new report issued Monday by the editors of MassBenchmarks,

The Clean Energy Connections Conference and Opportunity Fair has drawn 400 to 600 people in years past.

ISO-New England says July was the second-hottest July in New England since 1960 and New England’s all-time electricity consumption for one month was recorded that month at 13,385 gigawatt hours.

The city and Cisco Systems Inc. vowed that on Thursday they will show how technology can be used to improve the lives of Holyokers.

Based in Holyoke, the Western Massachusetts Enterprise Fund provides loans of up to $350,000 to small businesses and also help businesses get bank funding.